Graduate

Organizational Leadership Degree

"RMU's Organizational Leadership program furthered my skills and experiences. It provided me with a wonderful foundation to leadership and the confidence to exceed my professional and personal expectations. My degree translates well to my workplace, and I believe it will be an ongoing asset to the rest of my career." – David Pallof Jr., Officer, Senior Procedures Analyst at PNC Bank

The Master’s in Organizational Leadership is an interdisciplinary degree which builds on your experience as a member of society interacting with a wide variety of institutions to learn how to effectively develop others and accomplish organizational goals.

Students learn and practice how leaders recognize opportunity and motivate individuals and groups, and how and why followers choose people to lead them. To provide you with a deeper understanding of how leaders and followers accomplish and adapt, you will study the theories and strategies of leadership, conflict negotiation, critical thinking, and ethics and change, as well as how to manage information and technology, and analyze human behavior in cultural contexts.

The organizational leadership master's degree is a hybrid program that incorporates both classroom and online coursework. A completely online program is also available. The program is now being offered at RMU Downtown as well as at the 171st (ARW) in Moon Township (Military Personnel Only).

The M.S. in Organizational Leadership degree program is designed to accommodate both full-time and part-time students. Courses are offered in eight-week sessions. You can take one course each 8-week session, including summer, through the year and complete your degree in less than two years. You can take more than one course each 8-week session and complete your degree in less time.

Two study options are offered: one with eight classroom sessions, each with an online component; and another in a fully online format. In the fully online option, all course work is completed online in 5.5 hours per week. No class meetings are required. In the partially online option, courses combine classroom study with an online component. These classes meet for two hours one evening per week, and require an additional 3.5 hours per week online.

The program is also offered at RMU Downtown at 339 Sixth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh.

Graduates of RMU's Organizational Leadership program are able to respect the skills sets of others, embrace diversity, make better/more strategic decisions by considering all the necessary aspects of informed decision making, and build better relations with their bosses, direct reports, and supervisors. We frequently get positive feedback on how our grads' presentation skills and meeting planning have improved. Their confidence levels increase in leadership roles and they are more willing to take the lead in bigger projects. Also, the program helps our grads network with others in the class who come from different industries/professions and see how circumstances can influence different leaders in different ways.

Faculty members in the School of Communications and Information Systems, Department of Organizational Leadership, are dedicated to teaching, academic research, and bring their own professional experience into the classroom. As guides and mentors, they inspire students to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in their academic pursuits and in their lives. Their professional experience and community involvement helps students apply what they’re learning in the classroom to real-world applications in the workplace and beyond.